


Just Past Midnight

by Badgermole



Series: Not Broken Just Bent [3]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Auditory Processing Disorder, Austim, Epilepsy, Hard of Hearing, M/M, Migraine, Missing Limb, Prosthetic Limb, fire alarm, silent films
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 14:57:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18994912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badgermole/pseuds/Badgermole
Summary: None of them handled fire alarms well.





	Just Past Midnight

Virgil curled tighter around Roman. He had been staying the past couple nights at Roman’s place. Being with his boyfriend was less stressful. No that being home with Patton or Logan was stressful. It was just a different lack of stress with Roman. Patton would look at him with those sad eyes while Virgil would catch Logan staring at him like some creature in an experiment. Ever since the he had seized and walked out of his test, his seizures had been happening more frequently. Removing the stress he could was the best he could do to counter-act the seizures at least until his neurologist had an open appointment. Virgil thought it was just stress but everyone looking at him like his dog just died was getting under his skin.

Seeming to sense Virgil’s tension, Roman gave a quiet mumble and snuggled deeper into Virgil’s chest. Even in sleep, Roman just wanted to help. Then the stupid fire alarm went off. Virgil was up and jumping over Roman before the other had a chance to figure out what the noise was.

“Freaking fire alarm!” Virgil shouted and yanked Roman’s arm. The younger was already pulling on his shoes and sweatshirt. Roman lived here and barely knew where anything was. Just as he found his shoes, something was thrown onto his head. The slight dampening of the blaring alarm was so nice, but soon enough Virgil was dragging Roman out of the room and down the hall to the emergency exit.

Streams of still asleep college kids stumbled their way out of the building. Virgil was mostly hunched over but continued pulling the oblivious Roman away from the probably burning building. Finally they were a safe distance from the building. Virgil dropped Roman’s hand and the pair collapsed into a bench.

Roman sat with his head tilted back and his eyes squeezed shut. Stupid fire alarm. His ears were ringing, and honestly he couldn’t tell if the alarm was still going or not. He wanted to jam his palms into his ears but he knew it wouldn’t help, the sound was already rattling around inside his head. After a minute or so of no change Roman opened one eye and took a glance over at Virgil.

The other was bent over, hood up, and head resting on his knees. His hands disappeared into his hood to cover his ears while his eyes were squeezed shut. Virgil wasn’t photosensitive, thank god. It would have been horrible with Roman’s need for the flashing fire alarms. While it didn’t trigger seizures, it would leave him with a nasty migraine for a while. Roman gently rubbed Virgil’s back and scooted closer to him. Between his ears and Virgil’s brain, neither was going to be able to fall back asleep.

Roman slowly blinked open both eyes and took in how dark it was. They must not have been asleep very long. He wished he had grabbed his phone… he wasn’t exactly in a state to ask one of the other students for the time.

“Did you grab a phone?” Roman asked. He couldn’t quite tell what his volume was and whether or not the alarms were still going, but by the way Virgil tensed he had probably yelled it too loud. Virgil gave a small nod but didn’t move from his bent over position.

Roman slowly snaked his hand into the front pockets of the purple hoodie until he felt the familiar phone. Virgil, the wonderful panicked planner that he was, had grabbed both of their phones.

_12:30_

Virgil leaned into Roman’s warm side and Roman tilted his head back. Well, now they just had to wait for the fire department to show up with more loud noises and flashing lights.

“Shit, Patton and Logan!”

 

Patton tightened his hold of the body pillow. As such as a cuddler Logan could be before bed, he absolutely couldn’t wake up in contact with someone else. But they had a system. They would cuddle then when one of them got too sleepy or Logan started to feel claustrophobic, they would pull apart. Logan would go to his side of the bed and Patton would drop his big body pillow between them. It wasn’t nearly the same as Logan, but Patton managed. Knowing Logan was just on the other side of it didn’t hurt.

Then the fire alarm was going off.

Patton jolted awake. He flailed as he tried to detangle himself from the pillow while also grabbing at his glasses on the side table. His sporadic movements sent him tumbling out of bed wrapped up in the many sheets. By the time he was free and properly awake, Logan was already gone. Patton let out a huff as he pulled himself backward up onto the bed.

Patton reached over to the foot of the bed and pulled his prosthetic leg in front of him. He quickly rolled the sleeve over his stump before locking the pin into the actual prosthetic. It had only been about 30 seconds, but the load ringing of the fire alarms were starting to bother his ears. As he finally put weight onto the leg, it felt wrong but the pin locked in place and started his way out of the apartment.

Patton found Logan pacing in front of the nearby shuttle shelter. Patton faintly remembered that is was their emergency meeting place. The older boy happily plopped down on the bench and detached his leg as he watched Logan pace.

“How are you doing Lo?” Patton asked quietly as Logan passed him.

Logan stilled and turned toward Patton. His eyes didn’t raise above Patton’s knees. The other could see the guilt flash across Logan’s face as he realized he had completely abandoned Patton.  Logan open and closed his mouth a few times still staring at the other’s knees.

“The average response time of the local fire department is five minutes.” Logan replied before continuing his pacing not looking near Patton again.

So a ‘not great but working on it,’ Patton concluded. He started to massage his leg watching Logan’s pacing as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Unexpected loud noises plus being woken up early didn’t bode well. At least they were in an older building without the flashing alarms. The school’s health department had seen the diagnosis of ‘epilepsy’ and immediately placed Virgil away from the flashing ones.

“Lo,” Patton stopped Logan once he was close again. “Did you grab a phone?”

Just as Logan was about to pull his phone out of his pocket, it started to ring. Logan hesitated before pulling it out and handing it over to Patton.

_Facetime: Roman_

 

“Hiya kiddo” Patton said softly.

Roman’s eyebrows furrowed slightly before sloppily and quickly signing < _The fire alarms are going off across campus. I’m sorry we didn’t call sooner. I hope you both are alright. Looks like your outside. Stay warm- >_

“Woah, just slow down. It’s fine.” Patton said and awkwardly signed.

Roman gave a sheepish smile. < _If you’re going to sign, try to keep it in the picture Padre. >_

Patton gave an embarrassed laugh and adjusted the frame so his hand would actually be in it this time. His signing wasn’t great, Logan was surprisingly the best out of all of them. Roman tended to stay away from it because it reminded him of his auditory issues. Virgil’s epilepsy and anxiety were horrible for his memory. And Patton was just pretty average with languages in general.

< _Virgil’s already fighting off a migraine but I think my ears have stopped ringing._ > Roman noted.

Patton nodded and glanced up at Logan. < _Logan is pacing. The noise was bad. Both of us made it out okay._ >

< _I don’t think anyone’s getting anymore sleep tonight. >_

Patton let out a small hum in agreement. Both Logan and him were cursed with if they woke up they couldn’t fall back asleep.

< _When your alarm stops, grab your keys and drive over. We could do some silent films. Good for everyone. >_

Patton smiled and quickly nodded his head. “I’d love that!”

Logan paused and looked over to the fatherly boy. A small groan from Virgil made its way through the phone. < _Right, quiet. >_

“It is alright so show emotions.” Logan parroted one of Patton’s life mottos.

“Thanks Lo. Just can’t do it too loud right now.” Logan nodded in appreciation. He stiffly walked over and sat next to Patton, the right side away from the others’ stump.

Everyone glanced up at the sudden silence. There were a few sleepy cheers before everyone started making their way back inside.  “We’ll be over in a bit.”

< _See you soon Padre, Specs_.>

“We cannot go out in our pajamas.” Logan said as Patton started to replace his leg. “We should change before leaving.”

“I think I’ll keep on my sleeping shorts, but I’ll throw on a new clean shirt.” Patton didn’t want to struggle with pairs of pants right now. It was too early and he had a pretty fine relationship with his leg.

“I think you should drive.” Logan followed Patton back into the building, still completely avoiding Patton’s left side.

 

So the quartet ended up on Roman’s too small couch. Roman had fallen asleep, his head dropped down onto his chest. Virgil had his hood up and face mushed just below Roman’s head. He wasn’t asleep, but he was acting like it or at least fruitlessly trying to. It had taken a while, but Patton and Logan eventually ended up cuddling together on the other side of the couch. Patton had left his leg against the side of the couch. Logan had removed his tie and neither were wearing glasses anymore.

Yet another black and white silent film played on the TV, the light flickering onto the exhausted boys. None of them had been paying attention since the first five minutes of the first film. If Patton thought about it, silent film night always ended with them all curled up and passed out on the couch.

“I wanted to apologize for abandoning you during the fire drill. I had failed to properly include you in my evacuation plan,” Logan whispered.

“It’s okay. I can handle myself you know,” Patton looked up at Logan and shrugged. “If you or Virgil wasn’t around, I would still need to get myself out.”

“It was rude not to offer my assistance.” Logan reached his hand up to adjust his glassed but his fingers wrapped around the empty air.

“Sometimes you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others.” Patton smiled. “”Like how they say on planes.”

“As social custom and empathy dictates, I will make it up to you. Perhaps a nice date night.” Logan smiled lightly.

“If you wanted to go out again, you could’ve just asked.” Patton smiled and placed a small quick kiss on Logan’s cheek.

Logan gave a small hum, blushing a little bit.

“Get a room.” Virgil lightly grumbled into Roman’s chest.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to see more of this universe, feel free to let me know if you have any story ideas.


End file.
